Battle of Loos

battle of loos

A HAIL OF LEAD

By 8.20 a.m., Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Owen Lloyd of Minard,

commanding officer, 9th Black Watch, received word that the

Black Watch, Camerons and Seaforths, reinforced by 10th Gordon

Highlanders were advancing up the western slope of

Hill 70

. On

reaching the summit the Highlanders found it lightly defended.

Passing over a half-finished redoubt, the leading elements

of 44th Brigade advanced over the hill, driving the German

defenders before them. However, due to the confused nature of

the fighting, lack of obvious landmarks, and the large number of

officers and non-commissioned officers who had become casualties,

the attacking units became increasingly fragmented.

Exposed to heavy fire from the Dynamitière, a group of houses on

the southern slope, and the Cité St Auguste, the few survivors

were compelled to fall back to the redoubt on top of the hill.

Recounting the attack, a Falkirk soldier with 10th Gordons, told

how ‘every window was lined with machine guns. That’s where we

got stuck. We dug ourselves into the trenching in a hail of

lead, and held the place for quite a long time, but our rifles

were no use against such a number of machine guns. Their being

in the houses, too, gave them a great advantage over us in the

open... We had to retire about 100 yards and take up a position

on the brow of the hill’.

But the Germans were fully aware of Hill 70’s strategic

significance and were determined that it should be held. The

‘History’ of 15th (Scottish) Division describes the nature

of the struggle. Redoubling their efforts, the enemy swept

the crest of the hill with artillery, rifle and machine-gun

fire. Time after time did men of the 44th and 46th Brigades

enter the redoubt only to be driven back, and about 11 A.M.,

finding it an impossible task, what was left of both brigades

began to retire.

39 R. Burns, Once a Cameron Highlander (West Sussex, 2000), 41.

40 The Midland Daily Telegraph, Saturday, 9 October 1915, 2.

41 Dumfries and Galloway Saturday Standard, Saturday, 9 October 1915, 9.

42 The Falkirk Herald and Scottish Midlands Journal, Saturday, 16 October 1915, 5.

43 J. Stewart and J. Bunchan, The Fifteenth (Scottish) Division 1914-1919

(Edinburgh, 1926), 38.